Chapter XVIII: Part 18

HENRI, comte de La Rochejacquelein, born at Dubertien, near Châtillon, sur Sèvres, on the 20th of August 1772, did not emigrate with his father. He served in the constitutional guard of the king, and remained in Paris till the execution of Louis XVI. He then took refuge with the marquis de Lescure on his own estates in Poitou. When the anti-clerical policy of the revolutionary powers provoked the rising of the peasantry of La Vendée, he put himself at the head of the men of his neighbourhood, and came rapidly to the front among the gentlemen whom the peasants took for leaders. In spite of his youth and his reluctance to assume the responsibility, he was chosen as commander-in-chief after the defeat of the Vendéans by the republicans at Cholet. His brilliant personal courage, his amiability and his loyalty to the cause make him a very attractive figure, but a commander-in-chief of the Vendéans, who came and went as they pleased, had little real power or opportunity to display the qualities of a general. The comte de La Rochejacquelein had in fact to obey his army, and could only display his personal valour in action. He could not avert the mistaken policy which led to the rout at Le Mans, and was finally shot in an obscure skirmish at Nouaillé on the 4th of March 1794.

Louis, marquis de La Rochejacquelein, the younger brother of Henri, accompanied his father in the emigration, served in the army of Condé, and entered the service of England in America. He returned to France during the Consulate, and in 1801 married the marquise de Lescure, widow of his brother's friend, who was mortally wounded at Cholet. Marie Louise Victoire de Donnissan, born at Versailles on the 25th of October 1772, belonged to a court family and was the god-daughter of Mme Victoire, daughter of Louis XV. At the age of seventeen she married the marquis de Lescure, whom she accompanied in the war of La Vendée. After his death she went through various adventures recorded in her memoirs, first published at Bordeaux in 1815. They are of extreme interest, and give a remarkable picture of the war and the fortunes of the royalists. She saved much of her own property and her first husband's, when a conciliatory policy was adopted after the fall of the Terrorists. After her second marriage she lived with her husband on her estates, both refusing all offers to take service with Napoleon. In 1814 they took an active part in the royalist movement in and about Bordeaux. In 1815 the marquis endeavoured to bring about another Vendéan rising for the king, and was shot in a skirmish with the Imperialist forces at the Pont des Marthes on the 4th of June 1815. The marquis died at Orleans in 1857.

Their eldest son, HENRI AUGUSTE GEORGES, marquis de La Rochejacquelein, born at Château Citran in the Gironde on the 28th of September 1805, was educated as a soldier, served in Spain in 1822, and as a volunteer in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828. During the reign of Louis Philippe he adhered to the legitimist policy of his family, but he became reconciled to the government of Napoleon III. and was mainly known as a clerical orator and philanthropist. He died on the 7th of January 1867.

His son and successor, JULIEN MARIE GASTON, born at Chartres on the 27th of March 1833, was an active legitimist deputy in the Assembly chosen at the close of the German War of 1870-1871. He was a strong opponent of Thiers, and continued to contest constituencies as a legitimist with varying fortunes till his death in 1897.

AUTHORITIES.--_Henri de La Rochejacquelein et la guerre de la Vendée
d'après des documents_ inédits (Niort, 1890); A. F. Nettement, _Vie de
Mme la Marquise de La Rochejacquelein_ (Paris, 1876). The _Memoirs_ of
the marquise were translated into English by Sir Walter Scott, and
issued as a volume of "Constable's Miscellany" (Edinburgh, 1827).

LA ROCHELLE, a seaport of western France, capital of the department of Charente-Inférieure, 90 m. S. by E. of Nantes on the railway to Bordeaux. Pop. (1906) town 24,524, commune 33,858. La Rochelle is situated on the Atlantic coast on an inlet opening off the great bay in which lie the islands of Ré and Oléron. Its fortifications, constructed by Vauban, have a circuit of 3½ m. with seven gates. Towards the sea are three towers, of which the oldest (1384) is that of St Nicholas. The apartment in the first storey was formerly used as a chapel. The Chain Tower, built towards the end of the 14th century, is so called from the chain which guarded the harbour at this point; the entrance to the tidal basin was at one time spanned by a great pointed arch between the two towers. The lantern tower (1445-1476), seven storeys high, is surmounted by a lofty spire and was once used as a lighthouse. Of the ancient gateways only one has been preserved in its entirety, that of the "Grosse Horloge," a huge square tower of the 14th or 15th century, the corner turrets of which have been surmounted with trophies since 1746. The cathedral of La Rochelle (St Louis or St Bartholomew) is a heavy Grecian building (1742-1762) with a dome above the transept, erected on the site of the old church of St Bartholomew, destroyed in the 16th century and now represented by a solitary tower dating from the 14th century. Externally the town-house is in the Gothic style of the latter years of the 15th century and has the appearance of a fortress, though its severity is much relieved by the beautiful carving of the two entrances, of the machicolations and of the two belfries. The buildings looking into the inner court are in the Renaissance style (16th and early 17th centuries) and contain several fine apartments. In the old episcopal palace (which was in turn the residence of Sully, the prince of Condé, Louis XIII., and Anne of Austria, and the scene of the marriage of Alphonso VI. of Portugal with a princess of Savoy) accommodation has been provided for a library, a collection of records and a museum of art and antiquities. Other buildings of note are an arsenal with an artillery museum, a large hospital, a special Protestant hospital, a military hospital and a lunatic asylum for the department. In the botanical gardens there are museums of natural history. Medieval and Renaissance houses give a peculiar character to certain districts: several have French, Latin or Greek inscriptions of a moral or religious turn and in general of Protestant origin. Of these old houses the most interesting is one built in the middle of the 16th century and wrongly known as that of Henry II. The parade-ground, which forms the principal public square, occupies the site of the castle demolished in 1590. Some of the streets have side-arcades; the public wells are fed from a large reservoir in the Champ de Mars; and among the promenades are the Cours des Dames with the statue of Admiral Duperré, and outside the Charruyer Park on the west front of the ramparts, and the Mail, a beautiful piece of greensward. In this direction are the sea-bathing establishments.

La Rochelle is the seat of a bishopric and a prefect, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France; its educational establishments include an ecclesiastical seminary, a lycée and a training college for girls. Ship-building, saw-milling and the manufacture of briquettes and chemicals, sardine and tunny-preserving and petroleum-refining are among the industries. The rearing of oysters and mussels and the exploitation of salt marshes is carried on in the vicinity.

The inlet of La Rochelle is protected by a stone mole constructed by Richelieu and visible at low tide. The harbour, one of the safest on the coast, is entered by a channel 2730 yds. long, and comprises an outer harbour opening on the one hand into a floating basin, on the other into a tidal basin with another floating basin adjoining it. Behind the tidal basin is the Maubec reservoir, the waters of which, along with those of the Marans canal, help to scour the port and navigable channel. Some 200 sailing ships are engaged in the fisheries, and the fish market of La Rochelle is the most important on the west coast. The harbour is, however, inaccessible to the largest vessels, for the accommodation of which the port of La Pallice, inaugurated in 1891, was created. Lying about 3 m. W.S.W. of La Rochelle, this port opens into the bay opposite the eastern extremity of the island of Ré. It was artificially excavated and affords safe anchorage in all weathers. The outer port, protected by two jetties, has an area of 29 acres and a depth of 16½ ft. below lowest tide-level. At the extremity of the breakwater is a wharf where ships may discharge without entering the basin. A lock connects with the inner basin, which has an area of 27 acres, with 5900 ft. of quayage, a minimum depth of 28 ft., and depths of 29½ ft. and 36 ft. at high, neap and spring tides. Connected with the basin are two graving docks. La Pallice has regular communication with South America by the vessels of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company and by those of other companies with London, America, West Africa, Egypt and the Far East. The port has petroleum refineries and chemical manure works.

In 1906 there entered the port of La Rochelle, including the dock of La Pallice, 441 vessels with a tonnage of 629,038, and cleared 468 vessels with a tonnage of 664,861 (of which 235 of 241,146 tons cleared with ballast). These figures do not include vessels entering from, or clearing for, other ports in France. The imports (value, £1,276,000 in 1900 as compared with £1,578,000 in 1907) include coal and patent fuel, superphosphates, natural phosphates, nitrate of soda, pyrites, building-timber, wines and alcohol, pitch, dried codfish, petroleum, jute, wood-pulp. Exports (value, £1,294,000 in 1900; £1,979,000 in 1907) include wine and brandy, fancy goods, woven goods, garments, skins, coal and briquettes, furniture, potatoes.

La Rochelle existed at the close of the 10th century under the name of
Rupella. It belonged to the barony of Châtelaillon, which was annexed
by the duke of Aquitaine and succeeded Châtelaillon as chief town in
Aunis. In 1199 it received a communal charter from Eleanor, duchess of
Guienne, and it was in its harbour that John Lackland disembarked when
he came to try to recover the domains seized by Philip Augustus.
Captured by Louis VIII. in 1224, it was restored to the English in
1360 by the treaty of Brétigny, but it shook off the yoke of the
foreigner when Du Guesclin recovered Saintonge. During the 14th, 15th
and 16th centuries La Rochelle, then an almost independent commune,
was one of the great maritime cities of France. From its harbour in
1402 Jean de Béthencourt set out for the conquest of the Canaries, and
its seamen were the first to turn to account the discovery of the new
world. The salt-tax provoked a rebellion at Rochelle which Francis I.
repressed in person; in 1568 the town secured exemption by the payment
of a large sum. At the Reformation La Rochelle early became one of the
chief centres of Calvinism, and during the religious wars it armed
privateers which preyed on Catholic vessels in the Channel and on the
high seas. In 1571 a synod of the Protestant churches of France was
held within its walls under the presidency of Beza for the purpose of
drawing up a confession of faith. After the massacre of St
Bartholomew, La Rochelle held out for six and a half months against
the Catholic army, which was ultimately obliged to raise the siege
after losing more than 20,000 men. The peace of the 24th of June 1573,
signed by the people of La Rochelle in the name of all the Protestant
party, granted the Calvinists full liberty of worship in several
places of safety. Under Henry IV. the town remained quiet, but under
Louis XIII. it put itself again at the head of the Huguenot party. Its
vessels blockaded the mouth of the Gironde and stopped the commerce of
Bordeaux, and also seized the islands of Ré and Oléron and several
vessels of the royal fleet. Richelieu then resolved to subdue the town
once for all. In spite of the assistance rendered by the English
troops under Buckingham and in spite of the fierce energy of their
mayor Guiton, the people of La Rochelle were obliged to capitulate
after a year's siege (October 1628). During this investment Richelieu
raised the celebrated mole which cut off the town from the open sea.
La Rochelle then became the principal port for the trade between
France and the colony of Canada. But the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes (1685) deprived it of some thousands of its most industrious
inhabitants, and the loss of Canada by France completed for the time
the ruin of its commerce. Its privateers, however, maintained a
vigorous struggle with the English during the republic and the empire.

See P. Suzanne, _La Rochelle pittoresque_ (La Rochelle, 1903), and E.
Couneau, _La Rochelle disparue_ (La Rochelle, 1904).

LA ROCHE-SUR-YON, a town of western France, capital of the department of Vendée, on an eminence on the right bank of the Yon, 48 m. S. of Nantes on the railway to Bordeaux. Pop. (1906) town 10,666, commune 13,685. The castle of La Roche, which probably existed before the time of the crusades, and was frequently attacked or taken in the Hundred Years' War and in the wars of religion, was finally dismantled under Louis XIII. When Napoleon in 1804 made this place, then of no importance, the chief town of a department, the stones from its ruins were employed in the erection of the administrative buildings, which, being all produced at once after a regular plan, have a monotonous effect. The equestrian statue of Napoleon I. in an immense square overlooking the rest of the town; the statue of General Travot, who was engaged in the "pacification" of La Vendée; the museum, with several paintings by P. Baudry, a native artist, of whom there is a statue in the town, are the only objects of interest. Napoleon-Vendée and Bourbon-Vendée, the names borne by the town according to the dominance of either dynasty, gave place to the original name after the revolution of 1870. The town is the seat of a prefect and a court of assizes, and has a tribunal of first instance, a chamber of commerce, a branch of the Bank of France, a lycée for boys and training colleges for both sexes. It is a market for farm-produce, horses and cattle, and has flour-mills. The dog fairs of La Roche are well known.

LAROMIGUIÈRE, PIERRE (1756-1837), French philosopher, was born at Livignac on the 3rd of November 1756, and died on the 12th of August 1837 in Paris. As professor of philosophy at Toulouse he was unsuccessful and incurred the censure of the parliament by a thesis on the rights of property in connexion with taxation. Subsequently he came to Paris, where he was appointed professor of logic in the École Normale and lectured in the Prytanée. In 1799 he was made a member of the Tribunate, and in 1833 of the Academy of Moral and Political Science. In 1793 he published _Projet d'éléments de metaphysique_, a work characterized by lucidity and excellence of style. He wrote also two _Mémoires_, read before the Institute, _Les Paradoxes de Condillac_ (1805) and _Leçons de philosophie_ (1815-1818). Laromiguière's philosophy is interesting as a revolt against the extreme physiological psychology of the natural scientists, such as Cabanis. He distinguished between those psychological phenomena which can be traced directly to purely physical causes, and the actions of the soul which originate from within itself. Psychology was not for him a branch of physiology, nor on the other hand did he give to his theory an abstruse metaphysical basis. A pupil of Condillac and indebted for much of his ideology to Destutt de Tracy, he attached a fuller importance to Attention as a psychic faculty. Attention provides the facts, Comparison groups and combines them, while Reason systematizes and explains. The soul is active in its choice, i.e. is endowed with freewill, and is, therefore, immortal. For natural science as a method of discovery he had no respect. He held that its judgments are, at the best, statements of identity, and that its so-called discoveries are merely the reiteration, in a new form, of previous truisms. Laromiguière was not the first to develop these views; he owed much to Condillac, Destutt de Tracy and Cabanis. But, owing to the accuracy of his language and the purity of his style, his works had great influence, especially over Armand Marrast, Cardaillac and Cousin. A lecture of his in the École Normale impressed Cousin so strongly that he at once devoted himself to the study of philosophy. Jouffroy and Taine agree in describing him as one of the great thinkers of the 19th century.

See Damiron, _Essai sur la philosophie en France au XIX^e siècle_;
Biran, _Examen des leçons de philosophie_; Victor Cousin, _De Methodo
sive de Analysi_; Daunou, _Notice sur Laromiguière_; H. Taine, _Les
Philosophes classiques du XIX^e siècle_; Gatien Arnoult, _Étude sur
Laromiguière_; Compayré, _Notice sur Laromiguière_; Ferraz,
_Spiritualisme et Libéralisme_; F. Picavet, _Les Idéologues_.

LARRA, MARIANO JOSÉ DE (1809-1837), Spanish satirist, was born at Madrid in 1809. His father served as a regimental doctor in the French army, and was compelled to leave the Peninsula with his family in 1812. In 1817 Larra returned to Spain, knowing less Spanish than French. His nature was disorderly, his education was imperfect, and, after futile attempts to obtain a degree in medicine or law, he made an imprudent marriage at the age of twenty, broke with his relatives and became a journalist. On the 27th of April 1831 he produced his first play, _No más mostrador_, based on two pieces by Scribe and Dieulafoy. Though wanting in originality, it is brilliantly written, and held the stage for many years. On the 24th of September 1834 he produced _Macias_, a play based on his own historical novel, _El Doncel de Don Enrique el Doliente_ (1834). The drama and novel are interesting as experiments, but Larra was essentially a journalist, and the increased liberty of the press after the death of Ferdinand VII. gave his caustic talent an ampler field. He was already famous under the pseudonyms of "Juan Pérez de Munguía" and "Figaro" which he used in _El Pobrecito Hablador_ and _La Revista Española_ respectively. Madrid laughed at his grim humour; ministers feared his vitriolic pen and courted him assiduously; he was elected as deputy for Ávila, and a great career seemed to lie before him. But the era of military _pronunciamientos_ ruined his personal prospects and patriotic plans. His writing took on a more sombre tinge; domestic troubles increased his pessimism, and, in consequence of a disastrous love-affair, he committed suicide on the 13th of February 1837. Larra lived long enough to prove himself the greatest prose-writer that Spain can boast during the 19th century. He wrote at great speed with the constant fear of the censor before his eyes, but no sign of haste is discernible in his work, and the dexterity with which he aims his venomous shafts is amazing. His political instinct, his abundance of ideas and his forcible, mordant style would have given him a foremost position at any time and in any country; in Spain, and in his own period, they placed him beyond all rivalry. (J. F.-K.)

LARSA (Biblical _Ellasar_, Gen. xiv. 1), an important city of ancient Babylonia, the site of the worship of the sun-god, Shamash, represented by the ancient ruin mound of Senkereh (Senkera). It lay 15 m. S.E. of the ruin mounds of Warka (anc. _Erech_), near the east bank of the Shatt-en-Nil canal. Larsa is mentioned in Babylonian inscriptions as early as the time of Ur-Gur, 2700 or 2800 B.C., who built or restored the _ziggurat_ (stage-tower) of E-Babbar, the temple of Shamash. Politically it came into special prominence at the time of the Elamite conquest, when it was made the centre of Elamite dominion in Babylonia, perhaps as a special check upon the neighbouring Erech, which had played a prominent part in the resistance to the Elamites. At the time of Khammurabi's successful struggle with the Elamite conquerors it was ruled by an Elamite king named Eriaku, the Arioch of the Bible, called Rim-Sin by his Semitic subjects. It finally lost its independence under Samsu-iluna, son of Khammurabi, c. 1900 B.C., and from that time until the close of the Babylonian period it was a subject city of Babylon. Loftus conducted excavations at this site in 1854. He describes the ruins as consisting of a low, circular platform, about 4½ m. in circumference, rising gradually from the level of the plain to a central mound 70 ft. high. This represents the ancient _ziggurat_ of the temple of Shamash, which was in part explored by Loftus. From the inscriptions found there it appears that, besides the kings already mentioned, Khammurabi, Burna-buriash (buryas) and the great Nebuchadrezzar restored or rebuilt the temple of Shamash. The excavations at Senkereh were peculiarly successful in the discovery of inscribed remains, consisting of clay tablets, chiefly contracts, but including also an important mathematical tablet and a number of tablets of a description almost peculiar to Senkereh, exhibiting in bas-relief scenes of everyday life. Loftus found also the remains of an ancient Babylonian cemetery. From the ruins it would appear that Senkereh ceased to be inhabited at or soon after the Persian conquest.

See W. K. Loftus, _Chaldaea and Susiana_ (1857). (J. P. Pe.)

LARTET, EDOUARD (1801-1871), French archaeologist, was born in 1801 near Castelnau-Barbarens, department of Gers, France, where his family had lived for more than five hundred years. He was educated for the law at Auch and Toulouse, but having private means elected to devote himself to science. The then recent work of Cuvier on fossil mammalia encouraged Lartet in excavations which led in 1834 to his first discovery of fossil remains in the neighbourhood of Auch. Thenceforward he devoted his whole time to a systematic examination of the French caves, his first publication on the subject being _The Antiquity of Man in Western Europe_ (1860), followed in 1861 by _New Researches on the Coexistence of Man and of the Great Fossil Mammifers characteristic of the Last Geological Period_. In this paper he made public the results of his discoveries in the cave of Aurignac, where evidence existed of the contemporaneous existence of man and extinct mammals. In his work in the Périgord district Lartet had the aid of Henry Christy (q.v.). The first account of their joint researches appeared in a paper descriptive of the Dordogne caves and contents, published in _Revue archéologique_ (1864). The important discoveries in the Madeleine cave and elsewhere were published by Lartet and Christy under the title _Reliquiae Aquitanicae_, the first part appearing in 1865. Christy died before the completion of the work, but Lartet continued it until his breakdown in health in 1870. The most modest and one of the most illustrious of the founders of modern palaeontology, Lartet's work had previously been publicly recognized by his nomination as an officer of the Legion of Honour; and in 1848 he had had the offer of a political post. In 1857 he had been elected a foreign member of the Geological Society of London, and a few weeks before his death he had been made professor of palaeontology at the museum of the Jardin des Plantes. He died at Seissan in January 1871.

LARVAL FORMS, in biology. As is explained in the article on EMBRYOLOGY (q.v.), development and life are coextensive, and it is impossible to point to any period in the life of an organism when the developmental changes cease. Nevertheless it is customary to speak of development as though it were confined to the early period of life, during which the important changes occur by which the uninucleated zygote acquires the form characteristic of the species. Using the word in this restricted sense, it is pointed out in the same article that the developmental period frequently presents two phases, the embryonic and the larval. During the embryonic phase the development occurs under protection, either within the egg envelopes, or within the maternal body, or in a brood pouch. At the end of this phase the young organism becomes free and uses, as a rule, its own mouth and digestive organs. If this happens before it has approximately acquired the adult form, it is called a larva (Lat. _larva_, ghost, spectre, mask), and the subsequent development by which the adult form is acquired constitutes the larval phase. In such forms the life-cycle is divided into three phases, the embryonic, the larval and the adult. The transition between the first two of these is always abrupt; whereas the second and third, except in cases in which a metamorphosis occurs (see METAMORPHOSIS), graduate into one another, and it is not possible to say when the larval stage ends and the adult begins. This is only what would be expected when it is remembered that the developmental changes never cease. It might be held that the presence of functional reproductive organs, or the possibility of rapidly acquiring them, marks off the adult phase of life from the larval. But this test sometimes fails. In certain of the Ctenophora there is a double sexual life; the larva becomes sexually mature and lays eggs, which are fertilized and develop; it then loses its generative organs and develops into the adult, which again develops reproductive organs (_dissogony_; see Chun, _Die Ctenophoren des Golfes von Neapel_, 1880). In certain Amphibia the larva may develop sexual organs and breed (axolotl), but in this case (_neoteny_) it is doubtful whether further development may occur in the larva. A very similar phenomenon is found in certain insect larvae (_Cecidomyia_), but in this case ova alone are produced and develop parthenogenetically (paedogenesis). Again in certain Trematoda larval stages known as the sporocyst and redia produce ova which have the power of developing unfertilized; in this case the larva probably has not the power of continuing its development. It is very generally held by philosophers that the end of life is reproduction, and there is much to be said for this view; but, granting its truth, it is difficult to see why the capacity for reproduction should so generally be confined to the later stages of life. We know by more than one instance that it is possible for the larva to reproduce by sexual generation; why should not the phenomenon be more common? It is impossible in the present state of our knowledge to answer this question.

The conclusion, then, that we reach is that the larval phase of life graduates into the later phases, and that it is impossible to characterize it with precision, as we can the embryonic phase. Nevertheless great importance has been attached, in certain cases, to the forms assumed by the young organism when it breaks loose from its embryonic bonds. It has been widely held that the study of larvae is of greater importance in determining genetic affinity than the study of adults. What justification is there for this view? The phase of life, chosen for the ordinary anatomical and physiological studies and labelled as the adult phase, is merely one of the large number of stages of structure through which the organism passes during its free life. In animals with a well-marked larval phase, by far the greater number of the stages of structure are included in the larval period, for the developmental changes are more numerous and take place with greater rapidity at the beginning of life than in its later periods. As each of the larval stages is equal in value for the purposes of our study to the adult phase, it clearly follows that, if there is anything in the view that the anatomical study of organisms is of importance in determining their mutual relations, the study of the organism in its various larval stages must have a greater importance than the study of the single and arbitrarily selected stage of life called the adult.

The importance, then, of the study of larval forms is admitted, but before proceeding to it this question may be asked: What is the meaning of the larval phase? Obviously this is part of a larger problem: Why does an organism, as soon as it is established at the fertilization of the ovum, enter upon a cycle of transformations which never cease until death puts an end to them? It is impossible to give any other answer to this question than this, viz. that it is a property of living matter to react in a remarkable way to external forces without undergoing destruction. As is explained in EMBRYOLOGY, development consists of an orderly interaction between the organism and its environment. The action of the environment produces certain morphological changes in the organism. These changes enable the organism to move into a new environment, which in its turn produces further structural changes in the organism. These in their turn enable, indeed necessitate, the organism to move again into a new environment, and so the process continues until the end of the life-cycle. The essential condition of success in this process is that the organism should always shift into the environment to which its new structure is suited, any failure in this leading to impairment of the organism. In most cases the shifting of the environment is a very gradual process, and the morphological changes in connexion with each step of it are but slight. In some cases, however, jumps are made, and whenever such jumps occur we get the morphological phenomenon termed metamorphosis. It would be foreign to our purpose to consider this question further here, but before leaving it we may suggest, if we cannot answer, one further question. Has the duration and complexity of the life-cycle expanded or contracted since organisms first appeared on the earth? According to the current view, the life-cycle is continually being shortened at one end by the abbreviation of embryonic development and by the absorption of larval stages into the embryonic period, and lengthened at the other by the evolutionary creation of new adult phases. What was the condition of the earliest organisms? Had they the property of reacting to external forces to the same extent and in the same orderly manner that organisms have to-day?

For the purpose of obtaining light upon the genetic affinities of an organism, a larval stage has as much importance as has the adult stage. According to the current views of naturalists, which are largely a product of Darwinism, it has its counterpart, as has the adult stage, in the ancestral form from which the living organism has been derived by descent with modification. Just as the adult phase of the living form differs owing to evolutionary modification from the adult phase of the ancestor, so each larval phase will differ for the same reason from the corresponding larval phase in the ancestral life-history. Inasmuch as the organism is variable at every stage of its existence, and is exposed to the action of natural selection, there is no reason why it should escape modification at any stage. But, as the characters of the ancestor are unknown, it is impossible to ascertain what the modification has been, and the determination of which of the characters of its descendant (whether larval or adult) are new and which ancient must be conjectural. It has been customary of late years to distinguish in larvae those characters which are supposed to have been recently acquired as _caenogenetic_, the ancient characters being termed _palingenetic_. These terms, if they have any value, are applicable with equal force to adults, but they are cumbrous, and the absence of any satisfactory test which enables us to distinguish between a character which is ancestral and one which has been recently acquired renders their utility very doubtful. Just as the adult may be supposed, on evolution doctrine, to be derived from an ancestral adult, so the various larval stages may be supposed to have been derived from the corresponding larval stage of the hypothetical ancestor. If we admit organic evolution at all, we may perhaps go so far, but we are not in a position to go further, and to assert that each larval stage is representative of and, so to speak, derived from some adult stage in the remote past, when the organism progressed no further in its life-cycle than the stage of structure revealed by such a larval form. We may perhaps have a right to take up this position, but it is of no advantage to us to do so, because it leads us into the realm of pure fancy. Moreover, it assumes that an answer can be given to the question asked above--has the life-cycle of organisms contracted or expanded as the result of evolution? This question has not been satisfactorily answered. Indeed we may go further and say that naturalists have answered it in different ways according to the class of facts they were contemplating at the moment. If we are to consider larvae at all from the evolution point of view, we must treat them as being representative of ancestral larvae from which they have been derived by descent with modification; and we must leave open the question whether and to what extent the first organisms themselves passed through a complicated life-cycle.

From the above considerations it is not surprising to find that the larvae of different members of any group resemble each other to the same kind of degree as do the adults, and that the larvae of allied groups resemble one another more closely than do the larvae of remote groups, and finally that a study of larvae does in some cases reveal affinities which would not have been evident from a study of adults alone. Though it is impossible to give here an account of the larval forms of the animal kingdom, we may illustrate these points, which are facts of fundamental importance in the study of larvae, by a reference to specific cases.

The two great groups, Annelida and Mollusca, which by their adult structure present considerable affinity with one another, agree in possessing a very similar larval form, known as the _trochosphere_ or _trochophore_.

FIG. 1.--Trochosphere Larva of the Chaetopod _Pomatoceros trigueter_, L. (Osmic acid preparation.)

1. The apical plate.
2. Long cilia of preoral band (velum).
3. Long cilia of postoral band.
4. Mouth.
5. Excretory organ.
6. Mesoblastic band.
7. Anus.]

A typical trochosphere larva (figs. 1, 2) possesses a small,
transparent body divided into a large preoral lobe and a small
postoral region. The mouth (4) is on the ventral surface at the
junction of the preoral lobe with the hinder part of the body, and
there is an anus (7) at the hind end. Connecting the two is a curved
alimentary canal which is frequently divided into oesophagus, stomach
and intestine. There is a preoral circlet of powerful cilia, called
the "velum" (2), which encircles the body just anterior to the mouth
and marks off the preoral lobe, and there is very generally a second
ring of cilia immediately behind the mouth (3). At the anterior end of
the preoral lobe is a nervous thickening of the ectoderm called the
apical plate (1). This usually carries a tuft of long cilia or sensory
hairs, and sometimes rudimentary visual organs. Mesoblastic bands are
present, proceeding a short distance forwards from the anus on each
side of the middle ventral line (6), and at the anterior end of each
of these structures is a tube (5) which more or less branches
internally and opens on the ventral surface. The branches of this tube
end internally in peculiar cells containing a flame-shaped flagellum
and floating in the so-called body cavity, into which, however, they
do not open. These are the primitive kidneys. The body cavity, which
is a space between the ectoderm and alimentary canal, is not lined by
mesoderm and is traversed by a few muscular fibres. Such a larva is
found, almost as described, in many Chaetopods (fig. 1), in _Echiurus_
(fig. 2), in many Gastropods (fig. 3), and Lamellibranchiates (fig.
4). This typical structure of the larva is often departed from, and
the molluscan trochosphere can be distinguished from the annelidan by
the possession of a rudiment at least of the shell-gland and foot
(figs. 3 and 4); but in all cases in which the young leaves the egg at
an early stage of development it has a form which can be referred
without much difficulty to the trochosphere type just described. A
larva similar to the trochosphere in some features, particularly in
possessing a preoral ring of cilia and an apical plate, is found in
the Polyzoa, and in adult Rotifera, which latter, in their ciliary
ring and excretory organs, present some resemblance to the
trochosphere, and are sometimes described as permanent adult
trochospheres. But in these phases the resemblance to the typical
forms is not nearly so close as it is in the case of the larva of
Annelida and Mollusca.

FIG. 2.--Young Trochosphere Larva of the Gephyrean _Echiurus_, seen in
optical section.

1. Apical plate.
2. Muscle-bands.
3. Preoral band of cilia (velum).
4. Mouth.
5. Mesoblastic band.
6. Anus.]

FIG. 3.--Larva of the Gastropod _Patella_, seen in longitudinal
vertical section.

1. Apical plate.
2. Cilia of preoral circlet (velum).
3. Mouth.
4. Foot.
5. Anal tuft of cilia.
6. Shell-gland covered by shell.]

In the Echinodermata there are two distinct larval forms which cannot
be brought into relation with one another. The one of these is found
in the Asteroids, Ophiuroids, Echinoids and Holothuroids; the other in
the Crinoids.

FIG. 4.--A, Embryo, and B, Young Trochosphere Larva of the
Lamellibranch _Teredo_.

In A the shell-gland (1) and the mouth (2) and the rudiment of the
enteron (3) are shown; (4) primitive mesoderm cells.

In B the shell-gland has flattened out and the shell is formed. 1,
Apical plate; 2, muscles; 3, shell; 4, anal invagination; 5,
mesoblast; 6, mouth; 7, foot.

The cilia of the preoral and postoral bands are not clearly
differentiated at this stage.]

The first is, in its most primitive form, a small transparent
creature, with a mouth and anus and a postoral longitudinal ciliated
band (fig. 5, A). In Asteroids the band of cilia becomes divided in
such a way as to give rise to two bands, the one preoral, encircling
the preoral lobe, and the other remaining postoral (fig. 5, B). In the
other groups the band remains single and longitudinal. In all cases
the edges of the body carrying the ciliary bands become sinuous (fig.
6) and sometimes prolonged into arms (figs. 7-9), and each of the four
groups has its own type of larva. In Asteroids, in which the band
divides, the larva is known as the bipinnaria (fig. 7); in
Holothurians it is called the auricularia (fig. 6); in Echinoids and
Ophiuroids, in which the arms are well marked, it is known as the
pluteus, the echinopluteus (fig. 9) and ophiopluteus (fig. 8)
respectively.

All these forms were obviously distinct but as obviously modifications
of a common type and related to one another. They present certain
remarkable structural features which differentiate them from other
larval types except the tornaria larvae of the Enteropneusta. They
possess an alimentary canal with a mouth and anus as does the
trochosphere, but they differ altogether from that larva in having a
diverticulum of the alimentary canal which gives rise to the coelom
and to a considerable part of the mesoblast. Further, they are without
an apical plate with its tuft of sensory hairs.

In Crinoids the type is different (fig. 10), and might belong to a
different phylum. The body is opaque, and encircled by five ciliary
bands, and is without either mouth, anus or arms, and there is a tuft
of cilia on the preoral lobe. A resemblance to the other Echinoderm
larvae is found in the fact that coelomic diverticula of the enteron
are present.

FIG. 5.--Diagrams of side views of two young Echinoderm Larvae,
showing the course of the ciliary bands. A, auricularia larva of a
Holothurian; B, bipinnaria larva of an Asteroid; a, anus; l.c, in A
primitive longitudinal ciliary band, in B postoral longitudinal
ciliary band; m, mouth; pr.c, preoral ciliary band; st, stomach.]

FIG. 6.--_Auricularia stelligera_, ventral view, somewhat
diagrammatic. The larva of a Holothurian.

1. Frontal area.
2. Preoral arm.
3. Anterior transverse portion of ciliary band.
4. Posterior transverseportion of same.
5. Postoral arm.
6. Anal area.
7. Posterior lateral arm.
8. Posterior dorsal arm.
9. Oral depression.
10. Middle dorsal arm.
11. Anterior dorsal arm.
12. Anterior lateral arm.
13. Ventral median arm.
14. Dorsal median arm.
15. Unpaired posterior arm.]

The larvae of two other groups present certain resemblances to the
typical Echinoderm larvae. The one of these is the tornaria larva of
the Enteropneusta (fig. 11), which recalls Echinoderms in the
possession of two ciliary bands, the one preoral and the other
postoral and partly longitudinal, and in the presence of gut
diverticula which give rise to the coelom; but, like the trochosphere,
it possesses an apical plate with sensory organs on the preoral lobe.
The resemblance of the tornaria to the bipinnaria is so close that,
taking into consideration certain additional resemblances in the
arrangement of the coelomic vesicles which arise from the original gut
diverticulum, it is impossible to resist the conclusion that there is
affinity between the Echinoderm and Enteropneust phyla. Here we have a
case like that of the Tunicata in which an affinity which is not
evident from a study of the adult alone is revealed by a study of the
young form. The other larva which recalls the Echinoderm type is the
Actinotrocha of _Phoronis_ (fig. 12), but the resemblance is not
nearly so close, being confined to the presence of a postoral
longitudinal band of cilia which is prolonged into arm-like processes.

FIG. 7.--_Bipinnaria elegans_, the Larva of a Star-fish. Description and lettering as in fig. 6.]

FIG. 8.--_Ophiopluteus bimaculatus_, the Larva of an Ophiurid. Description and lettering as in fig. 6.]

FIG. 9.--_Echinopluteus_, the Larva of a Spatangid. Description and lettering as in fig. 6.]

FIG. 10.--A free-swimming Larva of Antedon, ventral view. It has an apical tuft of cilia, five ciliated bands, and a depression--the vestibular depression--on its ventral surface. v, Vestibular depression; f, adhesive pit.]

The following groups have larvae which cannot be related to other larvae: the Porifera, Coelenterata, Turbellaria and Nemertea, Brachiopoda, Myriapoda, Insecta, Crustacea, Tunicata. We may shortly notice the larvae of the two latter.

FIG. 11.--Tornaria Larva of an Enteropneust, side view.

ee, Apical plate.
aa, Preoral ciliary band.
bb, Postoral ciliary band.
dd, Mouth.
ff, Anterior coelomic vesicle and pore.
gg, Alimentary canal.
hh, Anus.]

1. Apical plate.
2. Mouth.
3. Postoral ciliary band and arms.
4. Perianal ciliary band.]

In the Crustacea the larvae are highly peculiar and share, in a
striking manner, certain of the important features of specialization
presented by the adult, viz. the presence of a strong cuticle and of
articulated appendages and the absence of cilia. They are remarkable
among larvae for the number of stages which they pass through in
attaining the adult state. However numerous these may be, they almost
always have, when first set free from the egg, one of two forms, that
of the _nauplius_ (fig. 13, A) or that of the _zoaea_ (fig. 13, B).
The nauplius is found throughout the group and is the more important
of the two; the zoaea is confined to the higher members, in some of
which it merely forms a stage through which the larva, hatched as a
nauplius, passes in its gradual development. The nauplius larva is of
classic interest because its occurrence has enabled zoologists to
determine with precision the position in the animal kingdom of a
group, the Cirripedia, which was placed by the illustrious Cuvier
among the Mollusca.

In the Tunicata the remarkable tadpole larva, the structure and
development of which was first elucidated by the great Russian
naturalist, A. Kowalevsky, possesses a similar interest to that of the
nauplius larva of Cirripeds, and of the tornaria larva of the
Enteropneusta, in that it pointed the way to the recognition of the
affinities of the Tunicata, affinities which were entirely unsuspected
till they were revealed by a study of the larvae.

1. 2. 3. The three pairs of appendages of the nauplius larva (the
future first and second antennae and mandibles).
3. Mandible.
4. First maxilla.
5. Second maxilla.
6. First maxilliped.
7. Second maxilliped.
8. Third maxilliped.]

With regard to the occurrence of larvae, three general statements may be made. (1) They are always associated with a small egg in which the amount of food yolk is not sufficient to enable the animal to complete its development in the embryonic state. (2) A free-swimming larva is usually found in cases in which the adult is attached to foreign objects. (3) A larval stage is, as a rule, associated with internal parasitism of the adult. The object gained by the occurrence of a larva in the two last cases is to enable the species to distribute itself over as wide an area as possible. It may further be asserted that land and fresh-water animals develop without a larval stage much more frequently than marine forms. This is probably partly due to the fact that the conditions of land and fresh-water life are not so favourable for the spread of a species over a wide area by means of simply-organized larvae as are those of marine life, and partly to the fact that, in the case of fresh-water forms at any rate, a feebly-swimming larva would be in danger of being swept out to sea by currents.

1. The association of larvae with small eggs. This is a true statement
as far as it goes, but in some cases small eggs do not give rise to
larvae, some special form of nutriment being provided by the parent,
e.g. Mammalia, in which there is a uterine nutrition by means of a
placenta; some Gastropoda (e.g. _Helix waltoni_, _Bulimus_), in which,
though the ovum is not specially large, it floats in a large quantity
of albumen at the expense of which the development is completed; some
Lamellibranchiata (_Cyclas_, &c.), Echinodermata (many _Ophiurids_,
&c.), &c., in which development takes place in a brood pouch. In the
majority of cases, however, in which there is a small amount of food
yolk and no special arrangements for parental care, a larva is formed.
No better group than the Mollusca can be taken to illustrate this
point, for in them we find every kind of development from the
completely embryonic development of the Cephalopoda, with their large
heavily-yolked eggs, to the development of most marine
Lamellibranchiata and many Gastropoda, in which the embryonic period
is short and there is a long larval development. The Mollusca are
further specially interesting for showing very clearly cases in which,
though the young are born or hatched fully developed, the larval
stages are passed through in the egg, and the larval organs (e.g.
velum) are developed but without function (e.g. _Paludina_, _Cyclas_,
_Onchidium_). As already mentioned, the larval form of the Mollusca is
the trochosphere.

2. Free-swimming larvae are usually formed when the adult is fixed. We
need only refer to the cases of the Cirripedia with their well-marked
nauplius and cypris larvae, to _Phoronis_ with its remarkable
_actinotrocha_, to the Crinoidea, Polyzoa, &c. There are a few
exceptions to this rule, e.g. the Molgulidae amongst the fixed
Tunicata, _Tubularia_, _Myriothela_, &c., among the Hydrozoa.

3. Internal parasites generally have a stage which may be called
larval, in which they are transferred either by active or passive
migration to a new host. In most Nematoda, some Cestoda, and in
Trematoda this larva leads a free life; but in some nematodes
(_Trichina_) and some cestodes the larva does not become free.
(A. Se.*)

LARYNGITIS, an inflammation of the mucus of the _larynx_. There are three chief varieties: _acute_, _chronic_, and _oedematous_. The larynx is also liable to attacks of inflammation in connexion with tubercle or syphilis.

_Acute Laryngitis_ may be produced by an independent catarrh, or by one extending either from the nasal or the bronchial mucous membrane into that of the larynx. The causes are various, "catching cold" being the most common. Excessive use of the voice either in speaking or singing sometimes gives rise to it. The inhalation of irritating particles, vapours, &c., and swallowing very hot fluids or corrosive poisons are well-recognized causes. It may also occur in connexion with diseases, notably measles and influenza. As a result of the inflammation there is a general swelling of the parts about the larynx and the epiglottis, the result being a narrowing of the channel for the entrance of the air, and to this the chief dangers are due. The symptoms vary with the intensity of the attack; there is first a sense of tickling, then of heat, dryness, and pain in the throat, with some difficulty in swallowing. There is a dry cough, with expectoration later; phonation becomes painful, while the voice is husky, and may be completely lost. In children there is some dyspnoea. In favourable cases, which form the majority, the attack tends to abate in a few days, but the inflammation may become of the oedematous variety, and death may occur suddenly from an asphyxial paroxysm. Many cases of acute laryngitis are so slight as to make themselves known only by hoarseness and the character of the cough, nevertheless in every instance the attack demands serious attention. The diagnosis is not, in adults, a matter of much difficulty, especially if an examination is made with the laryngoscope; in children, however, it is more difficult, and the question of diphtheria must not be lost sight of. The treatment is, first and foremost, rest; no talking must be allowed. The patient should be kept in bed, in a room at an even temperature, and the air saturated with moisture. An ice-bag round the throat gives much relief, while internally diaphoretics may be given, and a full dose of Dover's powder if there be much pain or cough.

_Chronic Laryngitis_ usually occurs as a result of repeated attacks of the acute form. It is extremely common in people who habitually over-use the voice, and is the cause of the hoarse voice one associates with street sellers. The constant inhalation of irritating vapours, such as tobacco smoke, may also cause it. There is usually little or no pain, only the unpleasant sensation of tickling in the larynx, with a constant desire to cough. The changes in the mucous membrane are more permanent than in the acute variety, and there nearly always accompanies this a chronic alteration of the membrane of the pharynx (_granular pharyngitis_). The treatment consists in stopping the cause, where known, e.g. the smoking or shouting. Careful examination should be made to see if there is any nasal obstruction, and the larynx should be treated locally with suitable astringents, by means of a brush, spray or insufflation. Overheated and ill-ventilated rooms must be avoided, as entrance into them immediately aggravates the trouble and causes a paroxysm of coughing.

_Oedematous Laryngitis_ is a very fatal condition, which may occur, though rarely, as a sequence of acute laryngitis. It is far more commonly seen in syphilitic and tubercular conditions of the larynx, in kidney disease, in certain fevers, and in cases of cellulitis of the neck. The larynx is also one of the sites of _Angeioneurotic oedema_. In this form of laryngitis there are all the symptoms of acute laryngitis, but on a very much exaggerated scale. The dyspnoea, accompanied by marked stridor, may arise and reach a dangerous condition within the space of an hour, and demand the most prompt treatment. On examination the mucous membrane round the epiglottis is seen to be enormously swollen. The treatment is ice round the throat and internally, scarification of the swollen parts, and should that not relieve the asphyxial symptoms, tracheotomy must be performed immediately.

_Tubercular Laryngitis_ is practically always associated with phthisis. The mucous membrane is invaded by the tubercles, which first form small masses. These later break down and ulcerate; the ulceration then spreads up and down, causing an immense amount of destruction. The first indication is hoarseness, or, in certain forms, pain on swallowing. The cough is, as a rule, a late symptom. A sudden oedema may bring about a rapid fatal termination. The general treatment is the same as that advised for phthisis; locally, the affected parts may be removed by one or a series of operations, generally under local anaesthesia, or they may be treated with some destructive agent such as lactic acid. The pain on swallowing can be best alleviated by painting with a weak solution of cocaine. The condition is a very grave one; the prognosis depends largely on the associated pulmonary infection--if that be extensive, a very small amount of laryngeal mischief resists treatment, while, if the case be the contrary, a very extensive mischief may be successfully dealt with.